AICTE head hails Indian engineers for their role in research and innovation

T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (left), at the national conclave in the city on Wednesday. Arun Jain, Founder of School of Design Thinking, and Anbu Rathinavel, Head of School of Design Thinking, are also seen.

Indian engineers have a role in contributing to the success of engineering projects in the country, said T.G. Sitharam, Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

At the inception of the Indian Institutes of Technologies, they were merely training youngsters for the industry but, today, they produce an enormous amount of research, and contribute immensely to various industries, he said.

At the first national conclave on design thinking for academic leaders held in the city on Wednesday, Mr. Sitharam said, “We need to change the mindset. India is ranked third in research publications and has the third largest ecosystem of startups. They have become very successful, garnering close to about $500 billion.”

He apprised the gathering, comprising representatives from engineering colleges, of the council’s efforts to transform technical education in the country in the last decade.

Mr. Sitharam, who launched the Academia NxT partner programme of the Intellect School of Design Thinking, said: “At AICTE, we foster promoting design thinking among technical institutions to create a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.” According to him, the

conclave would help academic leaders shape the future of education and drive positive change in their institutions.

Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of Intellect and Founder of the School of Design Thinking, proposed ‘Talent 2040’ as the guiding theme of the conclave with the aim of preparing students for the demands of the future.

He called for developing a culture of innovation within academic institutions and industry research labs to bring about safer, sustainable, and ground breaking solutions.

Mr. Jain said establishing task forces at different levels, introducing assessment frameworks to evaluate design thinking capability for institutes, establishing a districtlevel task force to bring holistic transformation, and curating a comprehensive curriculum in academia would help achieve the ‘Talent 2040’ agenda.

Anbu Rathinavel, Head of School of Design Thinking and Chief Design Officer of Intellect, said the conclave provided higher education institutions with an avenue to create a culture of design thinking on the campus through “contextual and composable initiatives”.

Mr. Sitharam distributed the design thinking impact awards under five categories to various higher education institutions.